Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality,
and to see the links to virtual rooms.
Log in
Accepted Paper:
Once You’re In, How Do You Stay? Do You Assimilate, Co-Exist, or Hide Away? - Anthropology at Home, Rituals and Belonging within Elite Higher Education Institutions
Isaiah Wellington-Lynn
(University of Oxford)
Paper short abstract:
The Art of Belonging: rituals as institutionalised structures of advocacy, rites of passage, and conduits of belonging. What might rituals teach us about the enduring nature of collective memory? And, how might rituals invite us to connect to ourselves and others in enduring, perennial ways.
Paper long abstract:
This DPhil research is interested in ‘institutionalised structures of advocacy’ that champion various forms of diversity. It explores how rituals and rites of passage play a role in helping people cultivate a sense of belonging in elite, higher education institutions marked by their power, politics, and prestige. As a DPhil student at Oxford, researching Oxford, I am doing ethnography at home. Naturally, this invites a range of complexities and considerations. During this talk, I share some preliminary notes, observations, and insights from the field interwoven with several autoethnographic data. Overall, I am interested in how institutional rites and rituals might have the potential to endorse, validate, and perhaps even advocate for various kinds of heterogeneity.